Carbonaceous type vanadium ores, such as "coaly" ores and carbon contaminated ores, contain organic matter up to about 20 percent by weight. The conventional salt roast process for recovering vanadium has not been successful on carbonaceous type vanadium ores.
Salt roast processes for vanadium recovery are typified by those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,193 and the disadvantages of this salt roast process and those disclosed in other patents are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,461 , which latter patent disclosed an improvement in a salt roast process.
The present invention is directed to a process which is effective for recovering vanadium values from carbonaceous type vanadium ores, which is more economical than the conventional salt roast process, and which is designed to produce a final high purity ferrovanadium product having a high ratio of vanadium to iron.